MERCHANT, GERVAIS, AND PILKINGTON

The Ricky Gervais Show is the latest project from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the British duo responsible for Extras and the original incarnation of The Office (they also have a film coming out in April). The series, an animated adaptation of the pair's Guinness Book of World Record-breaking podcast, premieres tomorrow night on HBO. We spoke to Merchant about The Flintstones, universal humor, and the show's third star, Karl Pilkington, the bizarre radio station employee–and cult celebrity–who ties it all together.  

INTERVIEW: Did you have any approval of the way the cartoons look? I noticed that it looks a lot like The Flintstones. Ricky, in particular.

STEPHEN MERCHANT: Well, actually, we asked them to do it in the sort of style of The Flintstones. Or, I don’t mean the style–I mean to invoke the spirit. ‘Cause there’s something very charming I think about The Flintstones, and so they probably self-consciously have made Ricky look a little bit like Fred.

INTERVIEW: And why did you decide to do it as a cartoon?

MERCHANT: Well, a couple of reasons. One is that there’s something very appealing to us about trying to bring Karl to a wider audience—an audience that’s not familiar with our audio books and our podcasts. We’re sort of fascinated by him and the way that his mind works. And it seemed like an interesting way to present him, coupled with the fact that a lot of fans had already taken it upon themselves to do sort of animated versions of our conversations, just for YouTube and places. Just doing stuff in their bedrooms.

INTERVIEW: So, for you, the show is all about Karl.

MERCHANT: To be honest with you the show is about Karl. Ricky and I used to do a radio show many years ago, and one day they presented us with this guy called Karl that would just press the buttons and play records. And we asked him a few questions and, suddenly, he just started coming out with these extraordinary anecdotes. And then he switched to just everyday occurrences in Manchester, where we grew up. Some people he knew had a horse that lived in a house with them. That seemed like a pretty standard event to him, whereas we found that extraordinarily bizarre. And we would ask him questions, we’d get his opinions on things. And he just seemed to sort of be this kind of endless well of bizarre, left-field ideas and opinions

INTERVIEW: From what I understand, Karl has achieved a real cult fame in the UK. I was wondering what you think it will take for him to become equally famous here in the US.

MERCHANT: Well he actually has a cult fame all over the world, weirdly. I mean, we used to get emails from as far afield as the States and Canada, but also I think we had some from Australia and Japan and Germany. I think we even had some Inuit people contact us once…I think if you get beyond his peculiar way of talking–actually, we often describe him as a kind of global village idiot. I think he sort of reflects—or he reminds us, I hope—of sort of idiots we’ve met all over the world.

INTERVIEW: So you’re exploiting Karl?

MERCHANT: Oh, we’re exploiting him, yeah–undoubtedly. But, you know, the man’s not a simpleton–not actually. Not a kind of medical idiot! So, he’s truly aware of what’s happening. And to him, it’s like, “Why is anyone interested in this?” He’s happy to turn out and have a conversation, but to him it’s bizarre that anyone would care.

INTERVIEW: Is there anything that you’ve found that people US find funny that people never do in the UK?

MERCHANT: People have often asked me about that difference between America and the UK, and I’ve really never really identified it. My hope is that–particularly with someone like Karl–is that idiots are idiots the world over. We asked him about evolution once, and he said, “Yeah, I know about evolution. It’s pretty simple: It started with bacteria, then it was a fish, then it was a mermaid, then it was man." Now, I have never heard mermaid included on the evolutionary ladder.

The Ricky Gervais Show premieres February 19th on HBO.